CHAPTER IV

T was some considerable time ere anything like consciousness returned to Tom Kewley, and his first supposition was that every bone in his body was not merely broken, but smashed into little bits, and the top of his crown utterly crushed in by his fall. He lay on the ground for some considerable time after consciousness did return, not daring to open his eyes or get up, for fear the fairies would do him further injury or kill him outright.

Hearing nothing, he ventured to open first one eye and then the other, and raising his head a little, looked cautiously round. He was all alone; not a creature near him but a mountain sheep quietly grazing a few yards off. Where were all his enemies the fairies? Had they all gone? Where was he?

He rubbed his eyes with his left hand, and sat up.

Was the whole thing a dream? No! most certainly not, for he not only distinctly remembered all that took place, but the very

words and tunes of the songs he had heard. Looking further about him he saw several familiar sights, and after a while discovered he was in the middle of a curragh, about two miles from his own home at Ballasalla.

dream, then, after all. But what is this in his right hand? Nothing less than the MASSIVE SILVER GOBLET he had used at the fairy feast, and which he had contrived to grasp tightly in his hand amid all the uproar and confusion attendant upon the vanishing of his elfin hosts.

No! it was no dream. The possession of the goblet proved, beyond all doubt, it was a reality, and that he actually had been a guest at the fairy banquet.

Tom Kewley having now proved he really was alive, not much injured, and in actual possession of a substantial proof of his adventure, in the silver goblet, he lost no time in making the best of his way to Ballasalla, where he found his wife and neighbours all in the greatest grief at his nonappearance, and making sure he had fallen a victim to the Goblin of the Enchanted Castle that the pedlar Philip Caine had escaped from.

After receiving the warmest of welcomes, he related to his wondering wife and friends all the particulars of his adventure, and when he produced his silver goblet every one was lost in astonishment. A consultation was held as to what was best to be done with the goblet. Some doubted whether it was silver--real silver--but the majority were in favour of its being the true metal, and the majority was right. To keep it in the house both he and his wife were afraid, for fear the fairies should visit them for the purpose of reclaiming it. Several things were suggested, and amongst the rest that the safest plan would be to take it back to the place where Tom recovered his senses after his exit from the Fairy Hall, and leave it there for the little people to take it away when it suited them. This was about to be carried out, when who should pass by but Parson Gill, of Kirk Malew. He was at once asked in and appealed to on the subject. The whole of Tom's adventure was quickly told him, and the massive silver proof handed to him for inspection.

The parson eyed it and weighed it well in his hand, examined it minutely, and then, addressing his parishioners, said

"No, my friends! Fairies are but imps of the devil in another shape, and when once we can get any good out of him it is folly to let him have

it back again. This cup, no doubt, is sterling right good metal, and is certainly of supernatural, and indeed I may venture to say diabolical, construction, and therefore very unfit either to be kept or used by ordinary mortal man for ordinary purposes, or even coined into current money, for it would carry a curse to every one who ever touched it. There is, however, one use, and one only, my friends, to which it can be safely, and I may venture to say appropriately, applied, and that is the services of the Church. Once safe upon the communion table, or even in the vestry cupboard, of Kirk Malew, no fairy elf or buggane in the island will ever dare attempt to remove it, or even injure or annoy the person who presented so valuable a gift to his parish church."

The parson's words were listened to with reverence and respect, and were obeyed with willingness and promptitude.

The fairies' cup was presented by Kewley to the Church, and Waldron, in his "History of the Isle of Man," mentioned that it was still in use in his time as a communion chalice, and was considered by every one as a tangible and visible proof positive, not only of the existence of fairies, but of the truth of Tom Kewley's curious adventure; but the cup is no longer there now.

No tradition to the contrary having been ever heard, it is supposed that Tom Kewley and his family were never more molested by his elfin hosts, and that the parson was right in saying they would respect the donor of such a gift to his parish church.